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Assam blunder?

Today’s Assam Tribune reports that the Indian prime minister will lay the foundation stone for Gail’s Assam cracker project on 9 April. This is a project that has never made sense but it looks like politicians are determined to see it completed. For those who have forgotten, the project was first proposed in 1985.

The project is for a 220 000 tonne/year cracker and downstream polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). Gail has wrangled substantial subsidies from the local government to make the economics viable but it still does not make sense to build a sub worldscale cracker in a landlocked Northeast India.

And will Gail be successful in getting any contractor interested in this project?